The GOP-dominated House Ways and Means Committee just voted to repeal the federal estate tax, which the Republicans, Libertarians and Tea Partiers have been labeling as a "death tax" that unfairly steals the family jewels from ordinary hard-working Americans.

Economists refer to "job polarization" in the labor force when middle-class jobs (requiring a moderate level of skills) appear to disappear relative to those at the bottom (requiring fewer skills) and to those at the top — requiring greater skills; or those who are better networked and know people in a position of influence. (Below is a simple animation to show how job polarization might look).

The February personal income and outlays report shows a -0.1% change in real consumer spending, which is not good news for economic growth. Not adjusted for inflation consumer spending rose a scant 0.1%. Real personal income isn't any better with no change for the month.

Unlike politically incorrect journalists in the mainstream media (including Fox News), one can't accurately report on bloody budget cuts — and then, just to appear non-partisan, say it's "Congress" who's proposing the cuts — not when it's the Republicans within Congress who are the ones proposing all these bloody budget cuts.

From his blog: "It’s now possible to sell a new product to hundreds of millions of people without needing many, if any, workers to produce or distribute it ... The ratio of producers to customers continues to plummet ... New technologies aren’t just labor-replacing, they’re also knowledge-replacing ... When more and more can be done by fewer and fewer people, the profits go to an ever-smaller circle of executives and owner-investors ...

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.2% for February as gasoline prices rose. It looks like the party is over for cheap gas and once again inflation is back on the rise. Gasoline prices increased 2.4%. Inflation without food or energy prices considered increased 0.2% for the month.

For decades the top 0.01% (and their political allies) have been winning the war on working-class Americans (meaning, about 92.2% of the labor force). One particular political party always wants to cut government agencies and programs that protect workers' health, safety and welfare — such as workers' wages, workers' pensions, workers' voting rights and workers' labor unions (like they do with their so-called "Right to Work" laws).

NAR's existing home sales bounced up slightly for February with a 1.2% sales increase. This is surprising sales increased at all, even with seasonality adjustments, considering America's East was stuck in either a snow bank or an ice cube for the month.. This makes sales 4.7% higher than February of last year. Sales by volume was 4.88 million in February.

The Federal Reserve Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization report shows industrial production increased 0.1% while January was revised downward to a -0.3% decline. December was also revised down to -0.2%. Manufacturing alone declined by -0.2% and January's manufacturing production was also revised downward from +0.2% to -0.3%.

An investigation by ProPublica and NPR has found that Republican state legislators (on behalf of lobbyists working for their local chamber of commerce) have passed laws that cut worker compensation insurance benefits to save employers money. Because of this, now the U.S. taxpayers have to pick up the added costs in Social Security disability, Medicare and Medicaid.

The BLS JOLTS report, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows there are 1.8 official unemployed per job opening for January 2015. Job openings were around five million. Job openings returned to pre-recession levels while overall hires has also increased to pre-recession levels.